About NYHC

For Our Patients

For Physicians

Welcome to the New York Headache Center

The New York Headache Center is a headache clinic dedicated to relieving the pain and suffering endured by victims of chronic headaches, and to improving the quality of their lives. When you see a headache specialist who is a member of our staff you will receive compassionate care employing integrative medicine, that is a combination of a range of traditional as well as complementary and alternative therapies. We also utilize some elements of functional medicine. Many of these complementary therapies and Botox injections help our patients achieve and maintain relief without the need for conventional medications.

Though all people share the same basic physical make-up, each person is unique. Your lifestyle, the foods you eat, your genetic heritage, even your profession and where you live can influence the reasons you may be having chronic headaches. The triggers that set off headaches are as unique as the people experiencing them. That’s why no single treatment is right for every person.

That’s also why our patients are our partners in determining what causes their headaches, and the best treatment or even combination of treatments that will achieve relief. If you are suffering from chronic headaches, if you have already tried treatments that have not worked, or if your present treatment is not helping, by all means call for an appointment. Some of the most common conditions we treat at the Center include migraine, menstrual migraine, chronic daily headaches, cluster headaches, medication overuse headaches, hemicrania continua, and trigeminal neuralgia.

We try to provide urgent care to people in severe pain who would otherwise have to go to an emergency room. Emergency room is not a good place for someone with a severe migraine. ERs are noisy, have bright lights, long waiting times, and doctors often give narcotics, Tylenol, and other ineffective drugs. If you are considering going to an ER, try calling us and we will try to see you. We can administer a nerve block or give you intramuscular injection of sumatriptan or an intravenous medication, such as magnesium, ketorolac (Toradol), metoclopramide (Reglan), dihydroergotamine (DHE-45), dexamethasone (Decadron), and other. However, we do not stock or give any opioid (narcotic) drugs. If necessary, it is easy to reach us after hours – our cell phones are listed on the answering machine. However, in true emergency we urge you to go to the nearest emergency room.

I treat children from the age of 8 and older, while my colleagues at the Center take care of kids from the age of 13. Our providers accept many insurance plans to make our services as accessible as possible. To protect and better serve our patients we have been utilizing e-prescriptions and electronic medical records for the past eight years.

Our staff consists of headache doctors and nurse practitioners and it is among the best in the field. We utilize medications, nutritional supplements, nerve blocks, Botox, acupuncture, and other treatments.

The headache clinic is led by myself, a board-certified neurologist and a headache doctor with 30 years of experience in treating headaches and pain. More than twenty years ago I was one of the first headache specialists to start using Botox for the treatment of headaches. Since then I have treated thousands of patients and have trained well over 200 doctors from the United States and around the world in the use of Botox for migraines and other headaches. I have participated in research studies that led to the FDA approval of Botox for the treatment of chronic migraines.

The procedure to administer Botox for chronic migraine is very brief and causes minimal discomfort. This video shows me performing Botox injections on one of our patients (with her written consent):

My main research interest has been the role of alternative therapies, and particularly magnesium in relieving migraine and other headaches. I was the first to study intravenous magnesium infusion for the treatment of migraine and cluster headaches. Our many publications and lectures have made this treatment a part of the standard approach to the treatment of migraine headaches in many emergency rooms across the country.

After many years of research and development I patented and then launched Migralex, an over-the-counter headache medication. Migralex has been very effective for many of my patients and many other headache sufferers.

Alexander Mauskop, MD
Professor of Clinical Neurology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, American Headache Society, and New York Academy of Medicine

Our pledgeThe medical staff at the New York Headache Center, in keeping with the ethical principles established by the American Academy of Pain Medicine, pledges to make every effort to:

Provide compassionate care to relieve pain and suffering, and improve the quality of your life through the use of the best available, current, and proven knowledge and skills in the field of Pain Medicine

Refer you to other appropriate resources if we cannot provide the care you need

Provide palliative care and relief of suffering to those of you with progressive diseases.

Involve you, your family or any other person you may chose to be involved in the development and periodic review of your diagnosis, treatment plans, and goals we set, whenever possible and to the extent requested.

Recommend the best treatment indicated for your medical condition.

Offer available experimental studies to you if you qualify for the study. However, if you decline to participate, such a decision will in no way affect our professional relationship and the best possible care for your problem.

Headache sufferers from all over the US and the world travel to our Center. We’ve seen patients from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Russia, Switzerland, UK, and other countries. Some of these patients come regularly, often for Botox injections and other treatments.